« I approach something, wherever, and then: a flash of strobe light! Bathed in light, everything becomes a fragment of love. ». Araki
Nobuyoshi Araki’s Deep Conviction
The depths of Nobuyoshi Araki’s photographs contain the quintessence of Japanese culture. Cheerful and affectionate, Araki always makes people laugh with his jokes. But as soon as he takes hold of his camera, his gaze becomes penetrating. In his viewfinder, quotidian scenes are sublimated into the violent art of the snapshot. Araki stakes his life on that instant to such an extent that the viewers are captivated, visually and emotionally, at the first glance. “Photography is life, the everyday is an art,” Araki tells us. He peels away a part of the everyday and turns it into a work of art: this is a relatively common approach these days, but Araki pioneered it. Unlike Western art, which came into its own as part of aristocratic culture, Japanese art forms, such as ukiyo-e or kabuki, originated in and were refined by popular culture. The true “beauty” is a secret inherent in people’s lives: behind this conviction of Araki’s lies traditional Japanese mentality inherited through the ages.
(Extract from introduction « La conviction de Nobuyoshi Araki » by Tadao Ando pour)
EXHIBITION
Araki
From April 13th to September 5th,2016
Curators : Jérôme Neutres et Jérôme Ghesquière
Musée national des arts asiatiques Guimet
6, place d’Iéna
75116 Paris
France
http://www.guimet.fr
BOOK
Araki Nobuyoshi
Éditions Gallimard / musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet
304 pages, 719 illustrations
39,90 euros
ISBN : 978-2-07-017955-8
